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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Found this more detailed description of the Denver system, which is designed by the same team and has been described as the model for the DC system:

http://www.aplusdenver.org/_docs/FINAL_TC%20Letter%20to%20Denver%20Community%20Members.pdf

Can't cut and paste properly, but the algorithm steps are described in page 4 of that pdf.  Key things I took away

The lottery is run for each school, based on the ranking of the students of that school.  So all the students who ranked that school #1 are run through the lottery and randomly assigned.  Then the students who ranked it #2 are slotted in below them, etc.

This also helps:

http://media.nola.com/education_impact/photo/diagram-enrollment-041512jpg-aea0b995c0aa929b.jpg

That's the New Orleans system.  It seems to me to imply a lottery for each school individually.

These are all designed according to the so-called "Deferred Acceptance Algorithm", which goes back to 1962.  It's commonly accepted to be the best way to do this sort of thing.

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Very interesting, thanks for posting! It seems if the Denver model is the case then there is a real incentive to strategically change the ordering. For example, if IT is my first choice school, but IT is not likely to have any non-sibling spots, then I might put another school first so that I have a shot at getting into that other school and don't waste my #1 slot on a school that will have few if any openings. 
 
If the New Orleans model is the case, then the lottery will be run as in last year, and then the computer will make various trades to get people into their best options. So I put A first then B, but get into B; another person puts B before C but gets into C; and a third person puts C before A but gets into C. They get reordred so that everyone gets into their preferred choice. If this is the case, then it sounds great--like last year's, where it's all random, but people are more likely to get into a top choice.

Really hope that they give us more info soon.
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